1. Missing Persons: Gabrielle Petito

Welcome to Rust Belt Baggage's first EVER episode, and the first episode of our 'Missing Persons' series. Hosted by Ariel Peters and Andrea Hurley from Buffalo, NY. When deciding to start a true-crime/paranormal podcast, we wanted to use this platform as a way to draw attention to missing person cases across the nation for everyone, but especially for BIPOC cases that tend to get brushed under the rug by the public and law enforcement alike. When the Gabby Petito's case started drawing so much attention we couldn't just ignore it and decided to do an overview of the case up to September 26, 2021 (when we recorded) and draw attention to the fact that it swept the nation at great strides and even though her family was INCREDIBLY grateful for the attention (as any missing persons family/friends would be), they recognized that not every missing person case gets such a response from the public. This week, the Petito Family, announced the formation of 'The Gabby Petito Foundation' www.gabbypetitofoundation.org They are still figuring out the details, but this foundation will provide resources, funding, attention, etc. for cases that are similar to Gabby's. Please consider donating.

In this episode, Ariel does an overview of what has happened so far up to September 26, 2021. 

Sources:

Brian Entin, Correspondent from NewsNationNow - Twitter

A Timeline of 22 yearold Gabby Petito’s Case - CNN

Full Utah Body Cam Video - Fox 13 Tampa Bay

North Port Police Department Facebook - Facebook

FBI Denver - Twitter